7x13 Field of Fire

Given the late introduction of the character Ezri, the writers obviously felt it necessary to give her quite a few episodes this season. Because of that, it really feels like we've been focusing on her and nobody else for a while. I would be okay with that, because I love Ezri, but the episodes have generally been nothing special.

All the ingredients for a good episode are here, though. Nicole de Boer can carry an episode well and I just enjoy watching her performance. A great guest star is brought in for Joran with Leigh McClosky who is and intimidating and intelligent presence. There's an intriguing murder mystery and a really creative method of killing.

But put together here, it doesn't add up to a very good episode. It's slow and doesn't feel like it adds much to the show. There's a lot of wandering around and talking and pondering, and very little meat.

One thing that really stood out to me was the technology used in the rifle. The camera which can look anywhere on the station is pretty amazing, and since it's obviously a compact piece of equipment it makes no sense that the tech isn't used as standard for security cameras across the station/Starfleet (you could literally place it anywhere and monitor anything). Not to mention it's potential uses for spying and crime. The TR-116 rifle was prototyped for it's use of projectile bullets, not the targeting system, so if this sort of stuff exists it should have been used previously.

Per se, that's not a bad episode. A futuristic crime story. Physical feasibility aside (how's that gonna work?) and the concerning fact how easy privacy can be breached in the 24th century, it's quite entertaining most of the time. However, they could have come up with a better reason why Chu'Lak murdered these people. I don't really get it? Smiling people? Logic dictates it? What?

Here's the problem with this episode. Programming. It's the third Ezri episode in a row. At this point I need a break. It doesn't help that the confrontation with her former host is sort of repetitive. We have heard of this demon before. Yes, in theory, it's nice that they come back to this story but this ain't season 3 or 4 anymore in which we still had much to learn about the Trill in general and Dax' former hosts in particular. Now, it's too late to do fundamental character building. I can't blame Ezri. I won't blame de Boer. I only partly blame the writers who had not much choice but dedicating much of this season to the introduction of Ezri. It's all the fault of executives who fired the original Dax and didn't realize that it takes a lot of time to properly introduce a "half-new" character and that the audience will never connect to Ezri as much as they connected to Jadzia. It's simply too late into the show.